What I struggled with last semester

The month long holiday has reached an end and I will be resuming semester two next Monday. The holiday has certainly given me time to reflect on the past semester and what contributed to what has been my least impressive semester yet (not a record I ever intend on beating). This is something I've been avoiding for some time now but it's time to be honest and face it. As I suspected, I failed a subject. The frustrating thing was that the final exam was fair and I could have passed it if I had focused on the right topics. With the limited time I had to study for this exam due to the way my exams were scheduled, I wasn't able to revise every topic. Therefore I had to prioritise certain topics over others. In the past, I've found that trying to cram every topic results in shallow, surface learning and worse, it also confused me about the topics that I already knew. This resulted in neglecting entire topics even, as I was convinced that other topics would be tested instead. However, to my surprise on the day of my exam, topics that I had put extra time into were not in the exam while others that I had not put so much time into were. Of course, I tried my best to answer all I could, but it just wasn't enough.

Another struggle I had during the semester was time management. Although I am not the best with time management, I've never had any major dramas. However this semester was particularly challenging. I applied for several internships and was lucky enough to make it through several stages (but didn't make it through the end). The application process was intense, having several stages and I spent a large bulk of my Easter holiday going through the process. While I was lucky to have been able to get through to the online testing and interview stages, they popped up at inconvenient times (before class tests). I poured a lot of time into these processes by conducting further research and trying many practice ability tests. I lost a fair bit of free time and study time and this affected my marks.
I also lost about a week (not including meetings throughout the semester) from participating in the CIMA GBC. I am so grateful that my friends asked me to be part of their team because I gained so much from the experience but looking back, I could have managed my time so much better. The competition happened to be before revision week (the week before exam period) which was not optimal. (I'm just glad that I was able to get my voice back and recover from the flu in time for the competition.)

Alternating weekly class tests didn't help me either as I would neglect some subjects to study for the test, then neglect that subject to study for the upcoming test. So time was not on my side this time.

I'm going to stop there with the reasons because I don't want this post to sound like a big whinge. My point is that while the semester was chaotic with tasks that seemed to pop out of nowhere, I still could have been more prepared. Blaming the situation is something I generally try to avoid because once you start pointing the blame and adopting the 'victim mentality' you become 'reactive' and not 'proactive' and lose control of a situation. Instead, I thought I'd share some lessons that I learnt from this semester;

•  Get better at working on multiple projects at once - I really dislike multitasking because I much prefer giving my all on one task at a time and it stresses me out to be honest. But in some cases, it's the only way. I usually like to tackle tasks in the order they are due, like how I spent time on the CIMA presentation before revision as I thought that once it was over, I could fully focus on studying. I didn't take into account the time it took for concepts to cement in my head and lost valuable time due to this.
• Don't be fixated on perfection - Sometimes if I set high goals for myself and things don't go exactly how I planned, I get dismayed and even lose motivation seeing that I've already 'failed' or derailed from my original plan
• Move on quickly, minimise future losses - This point carries on from the point above. Say you've spent a lot of time doing research on a topic but later realise that you've approached it from the wrong angle. You can submit it, seeing that you've spent so much time on it and not using it would seem like a waste. Or you could just let it go, move forward and do the assignment correctly. Sometimes you need to let go of sunk costs, because what matters most is the end result.
• Be more flexible, be less rigid - Also related, be prepared to change your approach based on the situation. I was so set on doing things a certain way but when the situation changed, this was no longer the best approach. Not smart.
• Invest in the certainties - In this case, I should have spent a little less time in the uncertainties like job applications and competitions and allocated more time to the certainties; assignments, tests and exams. Deep down I knew I should not have sacrificed my short time goals for my long term goals.
• Stop procrastinating, have some discipline - well this is pretty straightforward. I could probably schedule some breaks in at regular times so I would have some structure and feel less guilt. DELAYED GRATIFICATION is also a good concept to keep in mind (Google the marshmallow experiment)

These are just the points I can think of at the moment (hope it wasn't too repetitive) but I'm going to keep this under 2000 words haha. If you are somehow reading this, thanks for dropping by and joining me in my journey of just understanding myself better. :)

Busy

It has been too long since my last post here, it's not that I've forgotten or decided to abandon the blog. I've just been really busy. (That must be the world's most used excuse.)

In my two week 'holiday', I spent a lot of time learning more about how to write a good cover letter, how to answer applications, and completing oh-so-many practice psychometric tests. I actually discovered an entire market on the internet selling packages dedicated to practice tests, interview guidance and tips and tricks for getting into the Big Four. Did I buy them? No, not necessarily due to the price but because I was already pressed for time with all the time I was spending researching companies, looking at their social media, and tailoring my resume.

People really underestimate the time it takes to apply for jobs. For me, it was not necessarily the hunt for jobs as I already had a good idea of which companies I wanted to work for. But I wanted to give myself the best shot at applying for these companies so I dedicated a significant amount of time to these companies (possibly too long). At the end of the day, even though university is one of my highest priorities, getting into a great advisory position in a company I like is my dream. I feel that as soon as I at least gain experience with a big four company (or another great accounting company), half my worries are over. Regarding university or a career-wise anyway. Getting into an internship at these companies just meant that much more to me because I had no employment history, other than my volunteer experiences.

It also gave me the chance to see whether I really liked accounting earlier on, than being stuck in a position that I had worked over three years for and tried so hard to get into. So far, I have been rejected by two companies, no news from most and today I had just completed a video interview for one of them. I was so excited when I found out because I was convinced that I did pretty average in the last test I completed for the company. Maybe there weren't too many applicants for the location and area I applied for? Regardless, I was really happy that I had made it that far. I think after the video interview, the next stage is the partner interview or assessment centre, so it's getting pretty close. I would be a little crushed if I made it to the partner interview and got rejected as I had invested a lot of time and energy (especially emotional energy) into applying for the company.But it's all part of the learning process, right?

During the application process, I constantly told myself that all this time I was putting in, even though it may have seemed like it was 'all for nothing', was all contributing to making me better at the process. After all, when you make investments, more often than not, the results aren't always immediate.

I think the interview didn't go particularly badly? I mean sure, it started off awkward and right now, I can think of a couple of points that I should have mentioned but it wasn't a total disaster.. I really don't know. I think a good skill to have is being able to present yourself well on camera. That is definitely not an area of strength for me.

Didn't apply for as many places as my friends did. My one friend applied for over ten graduate positions, so I can't imagine how they were able to manage their time so well. While the process is somewhat exciting when you find out more about a company and what it's like to work there, at the same time, there is something just draining about it.

Anyway, onwards and upwards. Next week is a huge week for me, got an in class test, the CIMA Case Study Report due, a groupwork assessment, homework and some catching up to do. Somehow ended up making plans with two different people which right now, I am not really looking forward to.

Happy Easter!

My rabbit, Zippy (thought it was appropriate)

The Easter holidays have started and one thing I am definitely doing is applying for Summer Vacation Internships. Now that I have finally decided that I am staying an extra semester (see post below), that makes me eligible to apply for the internships because 2015 is now my penultimate year. So I haven't quite escaped the job seeking. Hopefully, lack of accounting experience won't hold me back too much with internship seeking. The process seems to be just as long unfortunately but I can really picture myself fitting in to these organisations (especially after what I've read on their websites). This Easter weekend I have been spending time learning more about the organisations and I really need to get moving with my cover letters.

Of course as any Easter, going to church is an essential part of our celebrations. Our family went to the Stations of the Cross on Good Friday and tonight we will be going to the most important mass; the Easter Vigil. There is also one more mass on Easter Sunday. Other than that, no other big Easter family celebrations this year but that has suited me just fine as I really need to get on top of these internship applications.

I have also started a Microsoft Excel course. It's with Shaw Academy, where I took my Diploma in nutrition. While I do know how to use it (not as well as I know Microsoft Word) from year 10 and in university assessments I thought it would be good to gain more knowledge about it. It is made up of 25 modules and after each module is an assessment. Should be able to fit this in my two week break whilst applying for everything. I was also planning to go to the Easter Show this Tuesday but the weather isn't really looking too good. It's going to be a busy day as after the gym, I will be spending the day with my best friend celebrating his belated birthday, then I will have to rush back to Macquarie University chiropractic clinic. Ideally, my GT application should have been finished before Tuesday as they close that day.

Found this on Instagram the other day, thought this was funny (and no, I did not lie, I know how to use Excel)

Thinking about all this is beginning to stress me out, but as long as I write everything down in my diary and form a plan, I should be able to get everything done. I can only imagine how stressed my other friends are, applying for all these graduate positions.

Also, I just found this website, Accountants Daily and spent almost an hour there. I've actually been looking for a website like this (and it happens to be Australian) because in the newspaper you find the Business and Finance section which I read from time to time but sometimes it's like the accountants live in a secret world. Unless there is a scandal or fraud. So when I get the time, I will try and post my thoughts on events that are relevant to accounting.